How to Pray
Is there a right way to pray?
Could there be a wrong way to pray, doing more harm than good?
Just as there are different types of prayers, there are also different styles. There is no single way to pray, there are many ways. What’s more, there are no strict rules which need to be followed, as some suggest. Biblical guidelines, yes. Specific methods for specific types and styles, yes. But there is no divine prayer “moderator” deciding whether your prayer is worthy of being posted on God’s “message board.”
There are really only two major mistakes to avoid when it comes to praying.
The biggest mistake you can make is to not pray at all. Whatever your reasons may be—don’t have the words to say, too much sin in your life, don’t feel worthy, afraid of not doing it right—understand that those are lies from Satan.
The second mistake is to merely repeat the words of a prayer without thought or feeling. That’s not really praying, so it’s essentially the same as the first mistake: not praying at all.
So we should pray, whether we think we have the words or not, whether we think we’re worthy or not, whether we think we’re doing it correctly or not. Just reach out to God; He’ll take your hand.
In all types of prayer—praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, meditative—and in all styles of prayer—formal, conversational, devotional, prayer walking, spontaneous—there is a constant, a baseline, an underlying guideline that they all share. And that is to “pray in the spirit.” (see Ephesians 6:18)
Not surprisingly, the best instruction about how to pray, the best modeling of a prayer life, and the best example of prayer we have was given to us by Jesus. Known as the Lord’s Prayer, it can be found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. There’s an Aramaic translation which may be closer to what Jesus actually said, since that was the language he and his listeners actually spoke. Regardless of the translation, it represents four of the five types of prayer—praise, thanksgiving, confession, and supplication. Its style is often formal, but it is also used as the basis for devotional prayer. Originally, however, it seems to have been intended as a conversational prayer.
Given in response to a request by the Disciples, the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t seem to have been intended to only be repeated word for word. Jesus was modeling the way he prayed—intimate words to his Father, his Abba, delivered conversationally, without pretense and without “babbling on and on” (Matthew 6:7 NLT).
His disciples were already familiar with the formal prayers of worship. And they would have had experience as well with scriptural styles of prayer. Jesus helps to lead us into a direct relationship with God. The Lord’s Prayer, beginning with “Abba” (which must have raised some eyebrows when he spoke it) and continuing in a conversational manner, typifies that relationship. That’s one of the reasons this prayer has resonated with Christians for more than 2000 years.
There is nothing wrong, however, with the repetition and recitation of this prayer, whether alone or with a congregation in worship. It’s one way we Christians are drawn together, one of those common threads we share.
